News from Into the Blue - November 2016 - Awards, Sport Sponsorship and Graphic Design

Awards bookend 2016 for Into the Blue

With the dust finally starting to settle on a hugely busy few months, we finally have time to think about what we have achieved! We began this year winning a prestigious UK Sponsorship Award and we have recently been nominated as Design and Marketing Agency of the Year by the Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce. We do a huge amount to strengthen brands through our in-house design and marketing capabilities, so we are excited this has been recognised with the nomination.

Sports sponsorship works. Trust us.

Sports sponsorship isn't just putting stickers on things! It is actually a very effective and sophisticated marketing tool. Here at Into the Blue we continue to use sports sponsorship to sell products or services for our clients, such as cars for Volvo. Seeing the enquiries coming, sales converting and then people driving around in the cars is a fantastic message. The success we see with our clients supports why the world of sports sponsorship is seeing growth and why more brands are using it. In our experience sponsorship is better (and cheaper) than traditional channels, and is a way to target specific audiences, however, it only works if it is done in the right way. Trust us, we are the experts and we have even won a few awards for it!

Don't just take our word for it though! Nick Connor has been our client for a number of years and explains the benefits:

"Volvo Car UK has worked with Into the Blue for over a decade. Gail and the team have been instrumental in growing Volvo's association with the sailing community to the point where Volvo and sailing are inextricably linked. Volvo's sponsored sailors have been brilliant ambassadors for the brand and have helped extend our reach to a new audience. The benefits of Volvo's sponsorship of sailing extends beyond awareness to real sales, as Into the Blue have helped us activate our sponsorship at numerous sailing events and have helped Volvo create really innovative car displays and test drives that have brought many new customers to the Volvo brand. Overall Volvo's sponsorship of sailing has delivered both brand enhancement and sales in a very cost-effective way." Nick Connor, CEO Polestar, former MD Volvo Car UK.

We launched this service at the beginning of the year and now offer our clients branding, marketing materials, illustration, website design, brand creation and traditional marketing methods. Two of our favourite projects so far this year have been completely re-branding the RC44 Class, including re-building the RC44 website to improve its content and usability, and refreshing the Volvo Cars Sailing website to mirror their brand. Both re-designs involved search-engine optimisation, mobile website enhancement and improving the user interface.

2016 has seen Into the Blue's busiest events season on record, with projects ranging from international sports events and Olympic activation, to world record attempts to grass roots activations and charity events. To name but a few, our clients have included the Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series Portsmouth, the Silverstone Time Trial Challenge for Operation Smile, J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, UKSA and the Sailing World Cup Weymouth and Portland.

We are continuing to work hard on PR and marketing across our client-base and with a growing team of experts in their respective backgrounds, we are looking forward to what 2017 will bring!

We are delighted to have some exciting projects on the cards and there will be announcements to follow early in the New Year. Watch this space….